Meaning & Origins

This name was apparently coined by the playwright J. M. Barrie, who used it for the ‘little mother’ in his play Peter Pan (1904). He took it from the nickname Fwendy-Wendy (i.e. ‘friend’) used for him by a child acquaintance, Margaret Henley. It has also been suggested that this name may have originated as a pet form of Gwendolen. After peaking in the 1960s, use of the name declined quite rapidly.